Agenda:

• 1:30 p.m.  Join us for afternoon tea with delightful snacks
• 2:00 p.m.  Brief introduction by Marek Piliarik
• 2:05 p.m.  Lecture by prof. Sanli Faez (Utrecht University, Physics department) – Iontronic microscopy of electrochemical reactions inside a nanohole. (The lecture will be held in English.)

Introduction to the lecture:

Electrochemical reactions govern catalysis and power batteries and sensors, yet their crucial steps unfold within nanometers of an electrode—far below the reach of conventional voltammetry that averages over large areas. We introduce “Opto-iontronic Microscopy” that monitors redox activity from changes in scattered light inside a single nanohole. Electric-double-layer modulation with lock-in detection delivers label-free sensitivity to this attoliter volume, while a reaction–transport model links the optical signal to local reactant and product concentrations. By resolving ferrocenedimethanol oxidation–reduction in real time, we disentangle double-layer charging from Faradaic currents and quantify nanoscale electrochemistry. This approach enables high-throughput maps of activity in confined geometries, informing catalyst design, battery interface engineering, and single-entity electrochemistry.